Dynamic Interrogation Of Wireless Antenna Sensor

This paper presents the dynamic interrogation of a wireless antenna sensor for mechanical vibration monitoring. In order to interrogate the antenna resonant frequency at sufficient high speeds, a wireless interrogator that consists of a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) synthesizer, a signal demodulation unit, and a real-time digital signal processing program was developed. The principle of operation of the dynamic wireless sensing system is first described, followed by the description of the design and implementation of the antenna sensor and the wireless interrogator. After calibrate the antenna sensor response using static tensile tests, dynamic interrogation of the wireless antenna sensor was carried out by subjecting the test specimen to a sinusoidal tensile load. The resonant frequency shifts of the antenna sensor were compared with the strains calculated from the applied loads. A good agreement between the antenna sensor readings and the strain values were achieved. A sampling rate of up to 50 Hz was demonstrated.